After the last three legs taking place first in Penang, Johor and MAEPS, Serdang, the finale of the inaugural Vios Challenge, at Technology Park, Bukit Jalil continued to present nail-biting drama as all three categories – Promotional, Sporting and Super Sporting – gave the 20,000-strong crowd over the weekend lots of excitement.

The Promotional Class may have been aimed at celebrity racers including the likes of Shawn Lee, Fattah Amin, Diana Danielle and Venice Min to name a few but the quality of racing was as evident as their prowess on screen. The final race saw Shawn Lee in pole position followed by Shukri Yahaya and Diana Danielle. When the lights turned green, Shukri made a great pass on Shawn on the opening lap while Fattah Amin rapidly moved in on Diana Danielle to clinch 3rd place off her. Fattah Amin then made tremendous progress with the leading pack to snatch 2nd place off Shawn Lee, who was having transmission problems.

Shawn slipped further down to 4th after Diana made up place to 3rd position before the end of the race. Yet, Shawn Lee walked home the overall champion of the Promotional Class having flourished in previous races.In the Sporting Class, Brendan Paul of Team Dream Chaser led the pack in pole position with Brendon Lim of Tedco Racing and Patrick Tam of Team NanoPlus in 2nd and 3rd place.

The top two positions were swapped immediately after Brendan Paul was caught off-guard, allowing Brandon Lim to creep ahead going into Turn 1. Brendan Paul later on made a bold move and dove into the inside of a right turn to pass Brendon Lim with the two exchanging paintwork along the way.

With double wins in Race 1 and 2, Brendan Paul clinched the Sporting Class championship, despite missing the season opener in Penang, impressively. The category to watch though, had to be the Super Sporting Class – starring the likes of Tengku Djan and Mark Darwin among other top drivers. The start of the final race saw Tengku Djan of Team NanoPlus and Mark Darwin of Team Dream Chaser both making perfect starts with Ser Ming Hui of MMCS Sports Racing in third making things difficult for those tailing behind him.

Contact was made between 3rd place Ser Ming Hui and William Ho in 4th position going into Turn 1. Following an intense pursuit, things took an ugly turn when William Ho again nudged into Ser Ming Hui from the back, causing him to go into a spin on the back straight. Despite earlier engine issues, Tengku Djan did not look back and opened up a five second gap over Mark Darwin in 2nd to cruise to a comfortable win.The race ended with Tengku Djan taking first place, Mark Darwin in 2nd and William Ho in 3rd. Later on, the results were overturned with William Ho dropped two positions down the order as a penalty for the offence on Ser Ming Hui, ultimately costing him the championship. That left Tengku Djan to walk home the champion of the Super Sporting category along with a brand new Toyota Vios.It was indeed a thrilling end to an exciting season of impeccable motor racing in the inaugural Vios Challenge. It was also without a doubt a celebration of grassroots racing the Malaysian motorsport fans have not seen in a long while. Bring on the next season!

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